Steak & Cheese Mini Rolls

It's Christmas Eve 2014 and it's time to open the doors and let the neighbours in for a small party!
I've thrown together some inexpensive and easy appetizers to serve tonight. I have shrimp and shrimp cocktail sauce, store bought baked appetizers, store bought cookies, chocolates, nuts etc. The usual. My creation today is steak and cheese mini rolls. Easy to make and pretty delicious too.

2 Sirloin Steaks - least amount of fat as possible
Montreal Steak Spice
1 or 2 tablespoons of Butter and some olive oil
Cheese - I wanted to use Blue Cheese, however finding blue cheese on Christmas Eve day in a very small town was impossible. So I went with creamy herb Havarti.
Whole grain Mustard

Allow the steaks to come to room temp. Coat each steak with the Montreal Steak Spice and rub it in good. Let sit a few minutes. Heat your frying pan or iron skillet to hot as shit (that's a real chef term I think). Melt the butter and oil together. Put the steak into the pan and fry for 1 minute each side. This is going to sear all that delicious spice onto the steak. I like my steak blue rare - so that is why I only seared for 1 minute each side. Pull the steak from the pan and let it rest and cool for a little while.
Once the steak is cool, cut it as thinly as possible in strips - as long as you can. (I have crappy knives. So my slices are all different sizes and lengths. But I don't really care). Remove the fat while your cutting. Searing the steak as quickly as this doesn't render the fat at all and the fat ends up being gross. Just saying.
Once you have ok strips of rare delicious steak, place a small cube of the cheese on one end of a strip, roll up the steak and stick a toothpick in it. Done.
I used whole grain mustard as a dipping sauce. It depends completely on your preference. Horseradish would taste really good too (I didn't have any). If you use blue cheese - I wouldn't put any dipping sauce with it.
Merry Christmas!

President's Choice Golden Mustard Barbecue Chicken Wings

My second post in 2 years and I'm posting about a frozen chicken wing product! Alright, there are 2 reasons for this: 1. This is what we had for dinner tonight and 2. Thursday night is my man's night to cook. This is what my man chose to cook. I'm not complaining because I didn't have to cook.
I decided to give you a review on this Golden Mustard Barbecue chicken wing product from President's Choice in lieu of posting nothing.
The box claims "Crisp and Crunchy". It lies. The breading is soggy as shit. Sorry President's Choice, but I've cooked these wings many many times and I can't get them crisp and crunchy in the oven. And I have tried. So ignore the Crisp and Crunchy lie and move on. The sauce, in this case, Golden Mustard Barbecue, is really tasty. I've had every flavour that President's Choice makes and so far, I've liked all of them. As promised, it's mustardy and bbq'y. Tangy and Delicious. I wish the breading actually stayed crunchy because these wings would be even better. The wing sizes are decent. You probably couldn't get better wings from your local pub, at least not the ones I've been to. They're not super cheap, but they are worth it. I choose the President's Choice wings over all the other boxes of wings in the frozen food isle. I've become a frozen food expert over the last few years and if you want a decent box of wings to serve yourself or guests, I would choose these. The flavours of the sauces are good, the wing sizes are decent but don't tell anyone that they were supposed to be "Crisp and Crunchy". Because that my friends, is a giant lie. If someone has been able to make these bitches crisp and crunchy - TELL ME HOW! Please!

And that is my review. Carry on with your life. :)

My Blog is Still Active?

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't realize that this blog was still active. I thought it had disappeared off the face of the internet. It's been 2 years since I posted anything and I have been actively thinking that it's time I started posting again.
So many things have changed in my personal and professional life in 2+ years. It would take a novel to detail all those changes. Let's just say that I am happy, healthy and cooking again. I stopped cooking for a long time. I ordered delivery, got take-out, ate prepared frozen meals. I forgot how to cook. I forgot about my love and passion for cooking. The last 8 months, I've been re-learning how to cook. It has not be a pretty - photo worthy - blog posting - journey. I feel like I started from zero again. I have had a string of absolute disasters. Over-cooked pork chops, steaks, potatoes, vegetables - you name it - I fucked it up. I am the foodie girl who forgot how to cook. Slowly and thru trial and error, cooking has been coming back to me. I still suck, but at least I'm having fun.
One more thing, I live, work and cook here now. You should be jealous.

Deep Fried Portobello Mushrooms with Greek Yogurt Dip

I don’t know why, but lately we’ve been eating a lot of deep fried foods. It could be because we got a new deep fryer and we’ve been playing with it. (This also explains the additional 5lbs I’ve put on!) This recipe makes a nice appetizer, although you couldn’t make them ahead of time, they would lose any crunch if they sit. Serve them right away with the cool and refreshing greek yogurt dip. If you feel any guilt about eating fried food, get over it. These are worth a try. 

2 Portobello Mushrooms

1/4 cup flour

1 egg whisked

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Salt & Pepper

Oil for frying

Clean the mushrooms and slice into 4 slices.

Lay out the flour, whisked egg and breadcrumbs into separate bowls. Add S&P to the breadcrumbs.

Dredge each mushroom slice into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Deep fry in the pre-heated oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.

Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt with a handful of chopped parsley and salt and pepper. 

Mixed Berry Tarts

This recipe uses store bought frozen fruit and frozen tart shells. I went for pure laziness here. They’re very yummy and quite pretty. The recipe can be used with fresh fruit and homemade pastry if that’s your thing. 

4 mini tart shells (frozen)

2 cups frozen mixed berries

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/2 cup sugar

Bake the tart shells as per package instructions.

Place remaining ingredients in small saucepan and rapidly boil until it reaches the jelly stage (10-15 mins).

Strain the hot mixture in cheesecloth to remove seeds. Do this quickly before the juice does jelly.

Pour juice into tart shells and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Decorate with icing sugar or Turbinado brown sugar.

Cocktail Meatballs

These little gems of tastiness can be made ahead of time and glazed just before serving. A real time-saver when you’re throwing a party. I did not record exactly what I put in the meatballs, so you may have to adjust the ingredients somewhat. But I had to share these with you because they turned out fantastic.

For the meat balls:

1 pkg of ground chicken

1/2 yellow onion, very finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

A couple tbsp of bread crumbs (maybe 4 tbsp)

And that’s it. Don’t add any spices. The glaze adds the remaining flavour and goes really well with the onion and garlic.

Preheat oven to 375F

Mix all together in a bowl. Roll small bite sized meatballs onto a baking sheet. Bake, turning occasionally for approx 15 minutes. Keep watch. If making ahead of time, allow to cool and refrigerate overnight or freeze until ready for the glaze.

For the glaze:

1/2 cup Blackcurrent Jam

1/2 cup Mango Chutney

Place both preserves into a frying pan and heat up until liquidy (I know that's not a technical term).

Dump the meat-balls in and stir until the meat balls are glazed and warm. Place on a serving platter, stick some toothpicks in and call it a party.

White Wine Infused Potato Salad

Cooked potatoes suck up white wine like I do on a hot summer day. They were made for each other. Let me be clear here, you cannot taste the white wine (At least I don’t think you can - one for me, one for the potatoes...I’m kidding (kinda-not-really)). This recipe uses white wine (I said that already), instead of vinegar. But you can tell all your very impressed friends that you infused white wine into the potatoes. (Seriously how many times am I going to say “white wine”?) All kidding aside, I made this salad up on the weekend to go with lemon and thyme chicken thighs on the BBQ. The weather was warm and the ideas were flowing. Give it a try, it won’t disappoint. 

5 - 6 white potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp white wine

1 tbsp Dijon Mustard

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Dash of Olive Oil

2 tbsp Bacon Bits

4 tbsp roughly chopped chives

Pinch nutmeg

S&P

2 tbsp Blue Cheese, crumbled (optional)

1. Boil the potatoes with the bay leaf approx 20 min until cooked through. Drain and run under cold water until cool.
2. Mix all remaining ingredients except the cheese in a big bowl.
3. Add potatoes and lightly stir until coated (See! The wine is gone - it's now IN the potatoes, hence the “Infused” part)
4. Top with the Blue Cheese and refrigerate for at least 1 hour for the flavours to blend.